"A system-level error occurred while verifying trust" windows update

Question

I get this message when trying to update windows.

After some research and reading some posts (there aren't that many knocking about) i found out that the problem could possibly be my SystemCertificates...

After navigating to:

C:\Users\Alex\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\My\Certificates

I come to the strange conclusion that i have NO certificates? no files in this folder or any sibling/parent folders. Not even hidden files.

This is very strange to me as i have genuine copy of windows (although i lost the cd weeks ago)

I have had some problems with my hard drive recently so they may have become corrupt or... something right?

I'm not sure if this IS in fact the problem... just something i read up on

I'm not even sure what the certificates are for or if i can create a new copy of them.. I have nooo earthly idea.

But as of this moment i cannot update :(

1. First do an attempt to reset Windows Update.

Try the automatic Fix It from Microsoft, run it first in Normal mode and then again in Aggresive mode.

Aggresive mode will remove the update history (when you installed the updates) but will not get rid of the installed updates, so you are still able to uninstall them when necessary.

2. Reboot and check for Windows Updates.

Rebooting is important, as this causes everything to load in fresh, then check for updates again...

3. Not fixed? Try to reset its dependencies, else gather more info.

Run the Fix It at the middle of the page, which should set correct a lot of the services that Windows Update is dependent on. Do a reboot again and check Windows Update, if is still doesn't work then please let us know whether the certificates are still gone and provide us with the Windows Update log as well as look whether there are any relevant entries in the event log that could give a clue.

Comments

[Tamara Wijsman]

How did you found that out? Did you do these malicious steps by any chance?

[Moab]

Malware can cause this type of error....superuser.com/questions/100360/…